


Desperate Times

by rosepear



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M, Neil and Aaron bonding, in their own unique way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 18:30:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15846936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosepear/pseuds/rosepear
Summary: "Neil had a habit of letting his assignments pile up to the point when they could no longer be ignored, and then he would reluctantly make himself work on them, only to keep getting distracted by practice, an Exy game or, well, Andrew."A story of Neil procrastinating and being careless with his caffeine intake, featuring Neil and Aaron's unique kind of bonding.





	Desperate Times

  


It was a dull, rainy day, and Neil felt like the weather matched his mood perfectly as he sat down to catch up on his assignments. The pile of uncompleted homework on his desk was an intimidating thing, steadily getting bigger over the course of the week, and so far it had been successfully ignored.

For Neil, the academic part of his college experience was nothing more than a means to an end. It was simple – he went to his classes and studied and passed so that he could play Exy. He quite enjoyed Spanish and Math when he needed to study for his exams, but otherwise didn’t really care, and homework was definitely not something he liked to waste his time on. He had a habit of letting his assignments pile up to the point when they could no longer be ignored, and then he would reluctantly make himself work on them, only to keep getting distracted by practice, an Exy game or, well, Andrew.

Today was definitely not a day for productivity, Neil thought, and the universe seemed to agree with him. The clouds covering the sky were dark and somewhat ominous, and the rain pounded ceaselessly on the windows. Neil kept yawning during the usual morning workout, and then throughout his one class of the day, desperately trying not to fall asleep. No matter the amount of subtle stretching he did, he couldn’t shake off the fatigue from his limbs; not even running back to Fox Tower and getting thoroughly soaked helped.

So here he was, staring helplessly at his sad pile of homework, tired and miserable.

To put off having to work on it some more, Neil got up and went to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and regarded the inside of it listlessly, then closed it and looked around. He spotted a bunch of bright blue bottles standing innocently on the counter; it was a six-pack of Nicky’s favorite energy drinks, which he sometimes left in their room. He remembered Nicky drinking them when he needed something stronger than coffee, and Neil always though they looked vaguely unhealthy. However, desperate times called for desperate measures, so he took one, making up his mind.

He opened the cap, sighed, and downed the drink in one go, barely stopping to breathe. It was unbearably, ridiculously sweet, like he expected it to be, but Neil needed something to keep him awake and he could sacrifice his taste buds this one time. He took another bottle and put it on his desk, in case he needed more.

A couple of minutes passed with Neil drumming his fingers on his leg and waiting for the energy drink to work. However, when the only thing he felt was the sweet aftertaste, he grabbed the other bottle and downed it as well. He had to quickly chase it with some water, like a parody of a shot. He grimaced and went back to his homework, hoping the two bottles would be enough to keep him awake and focused.

He was in the middle of working through one of the trickier formulas in his Math assignment when he started to feel strangely antsy. He was barely moving, yet his heart was picking up it's pace as if he was getting ready to run; a familiar feeling in an unusual setting. Neil had to put his pencil down and sit still when his hands began to shake. Perplexed, he went to the trash can and picked up one of the bottles, for the first time actually checking the amount of caffeine and other stuff he had mindlessly inhaled. He blinked, frowning at the various numbers; now that he thought of it, he probably shouldn’t have drank so much at once.

Neil had to sit on the floor and rest for a while. The bottle laid abandoned, the pounding growing louder in his head. The coolness of the refrigerator by his side was a welcome relief. He tried to control his breathing— _in, one-two-three, out, one-two-three, repeat_ —but the task turned out to be harder than he expected. The whole situation seemed absurd and he felt quite stupid, but mostly he just wanted to kick himself for being so careless with his limits.

It would be ironic, really, to have survived this long only to die because of Nicky's energy drinks.

Neil didn’t know how much time he spent sitting there in the kitchen, gradually getting a grasp on his breathing. At some point, the door to the dorm opened and Aaron came in. He went into the room and loudly dumped his bag on the floor.

“I’m studying here today,“ Neil heard him say irritably. Even though he no longer shared a room with his brother and Kevin, Aaron tended to come here sometimes to study in peace when Matt or Nicky were being particularly loud, and Andrew usually let him.

Neil didn’t register Aaron coming closer until he was towering over him, an annoyed frown on his face.

“What are you doing, exactly?” he asked, annoyance clear in his voice.

Neil closed his eyes. “I may or may not be dying,” he groaned.

_Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump_ , went his heart, and Neil felt it with his entire body.

He could also feel Aaron scoff and pick up the empty bottle from the floor.

“What the fuck, Neil?” Aaron demanded, incredulously. “How much of this did you drink?“

Neil put two fingers up.

“You’re so stupid.” He heard running water and the sound of a glass being filled. He felt vaguely sick at the thought of drinking anything more at the moment.

“Yeah,“ Neil agreed weekly.

“Do you realize how strong this shit is?“ Aaron asked, setting the glass in front of Neil so forcefully that some of the water spilled on his shorts. “You can’t just drink two bottles in one go. You’re, like, barely over five feet tall, for fuck’s sake. Where do you think it all goes?“

“Fuck you,“ Neil muttered, picking up the glass and sipping the water slowly. He kind of felt better when it washed away the sickly sweet aftertaste from his mouth. “Like you’re one to talk.“

Aaron shot him a glare. “Get up, asshole,“ he said, nudging Neil with his foot. “You’re not going to die.“

Neil batted him away and slowly got up, clutching the glass to his chest. He made his way to one of the oversized beanbag chairs and collapsed on it, still feeling on edge. He finished his water and let Aaron refill the glass a couple more times, telling him to sit there and drink until Neil felt his heart return to a semi-regular pace and the pounding in his head lessen.

Roughly an hour later, Andrew came back from his classes. He took one look at Neil, half-sunk into the beanbag chair, pale-faced and worn-out, and Aaron sitting at his desk, muttering to himself irritably.

“Explain,” he demanded in his usual flat voice.

Neil shrugged and glanced at Aaron, who looked up at them both and scowled.

“Your boyfriend is an idiot,“ he huffed, standing up and taking his stuff with him. “And I’m not dealing with that. Have fun.”

Andrew and Neil watched him leave the room. When the door closed, Andrew slowly made his way over to Neil and crouched in front of him.

“You look like shit,“ he stated simply.

Neil sipped some more of his water. “The sweet things you say to me,” he muttered. “Be careful, I may swoon.”

Andrew scoffed and got up. He put a hand to Neil’s forehead and observed him for a while. Seemingly satisfied with whatever he found on his face, he combed through Neil’s auburn hair once and took the glass to fill it with more water. He came back and pushed it into Neil’s hands, careful not to let the water spill, before taking out a cigarette to smoke by the window.

Neil instantly felt better just by having Andrew in the room. He drank his water slowly and breathed in the faint smell of smoke. He let his eyes close and listened to the steady _thump-thump, thump-thump_ of his heart, the rain an accompanying sound in the background. At last, he felt fine.

  


*

  


Later that day, hours after afternoon practice, Neil and Andrew decided to go on a drive. As it was the middle of winter, Andrew—who refused to be cold, even though Neil thought the winters in South Carolina were pretty mild—went out earlier to warm up the car a bit while Neil packed their essentials and locked the door since Kevin was out with the upperclassmen. He took the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator to arrive and very nearly collided with Aaron at the bottom of the staircase.

They nodded at each other curtly and went in the opposite directions. Neil pushed the exit door open and was about to go out when he changed his mind and turned back to face Aaron, who was browsing through his phone while waiting for the elevator.

"Hey," Neil started somewhat awkwardly. He didn't exactly know what to say, but for some reason he wanted to say _something_. "Thanks, I guess, for—you know, earlier."

Aaron looked at him blankly for a moment and then shrugged, apparently as uncomfortable as Neil, if not more so. "Yeah, whatever."

They broke their brief and extremely awkward eye contact, and that was it. Aaron went back to looking at his phone and Neil turned to leave. Andrew didn't really care, but Neil didn't want to make him wait longer than he already did. He made sure his keys were safe in his pocket and headed for the Maserati.

They would never really be kind to each other, and they would never really be friends, but Neil thought that, in their own, twisted way, he and Aaron may actually care, just a little bit.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, it's my first fic here!! Please let me know if you find any mistakes. This was inspired by a real-life story, so be careful with your energy drinks, kids.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr [here](https://rosepear.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Thank you for reading! ❤️


End file.
